Painting supplies

Painting just brings a doll to life! I use water-based paints, like watercolours, acrylics and chalk pastels. This simple kit will last you for years and it's just perfect for air-dry clay dolls. Avoid using heavy paints and thick strokes on your dolls to achieve that airbrushed effect! Always paint in layers and seal every layer that you're happy with using matt varnish.

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Watercolours

What I love about watercolours the most is that you can build up the colour in layers and avoid painful mistakes as you learn to paint tiny details like eyes. These water-based paints are tremendous when you try to achieve natural looking lips because you can dilute the paint to the marvellous sheer colours.

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Chalk pastels

I use pastels to create soft blushing cheeks, makeup looks and overall body colour. Grind them brushing against sanding paper and you'll get fine colourful dust. Dip soft brush and paint your doll! To build vivid colours paint in layers and seal every layer with matt varnish.

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Acrylic paints

With air-dry clays, you'll need to paint your whole doll white before applying other colours. For that acrylic paints are the best choice! They're opaque and cover the area evenly. Also, acrylics are great when you need bright colours for detailing your dolls. For example, sometimes bright red lips look better with acrylics than watercolours!